Thanks to our phones, all of us are photographers now, and that means we carry with us, all the time, a tool to make pictures that are more than just snapshots or selfies. Your phone can’t do everything a Nikon can; maybe you don’t have the talent or dedication of a professional, but by visiting gallery shows, perusing coffee table books, maybe reading thoughtful essays by critics like John Berger or Susan Sontag or Geoff Dyer, maybe some of it begins to wear off on you. Maybe you find yourself looking a little more closely, and occasionally surprising yourself with an interesting image. All that said, here’s a list of photographic strategies I noted (Notes app on phone) at a gallery show of black and white pictures by Lee Friedlander visited last July. This droll documentarian of American townscapes is a master at framing shots using split-screens, juxtapositions, mirrors, shadows and, well, for instance:

Close up versus distant people to shrink one of themMirrors to show different viewRear view mirrorsOpen car door, its window a frameSplit a person with a vertical polePole as deceptive focal pointPeople going opposite directions on either side of dividerPoster plastered wall plus blank wallMaybe with an arrowSquared geometry of receding buildingsGlamorous poster juxtaposed with dowdy maid in windowPartial words on wall (woe) comments on imageHole in wall as frame for imageWindow reflection and other side of slit what it’s reflecting off kilterElongated shadow of pole as dividerWallpaper patternsDistant pyramid paired with street sign triangleTilted poles like arrows in groundPiles of junk paired with churchDo all of these tricks in one photoAd on poster framed in bedroom windowTV screen image as comment on roomPatterns, diagonals, squaresChain link fence as screenEmpty picture frame hung on chain link fenceBack of head not faceMultiple shadowsShadow of photographer loomingNude framed in block of light thru window

The show was fascinating, each photo a puzzle, and collectively a lesson in how our mind’s eye unconsciously guides and shapes what we see (and fail to see). Walking out of the gallery, spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around midtown Manhattan, attempting to snap shots like his. It was fun, one of the year’s more memorable afternoons. And here’s my favorite Friedlanderish picture, of a barber shop in the 30s: